Moreton - QLD - Marginal Liberal
Acknowledged as a key marginal, the inner metropolitan seat of Moreton sits in Brisbane’s south, and sports an interesting history.
In 1961, the Liberal Party’s Jim Killen retained the seat by a mere 130
votes believed to be on the back of Communist Party preferences,
thereby keeping the Menzies Government in power. Despite contesting
slim margins, the first win for the Australian Labor Party since
Federation came in 1990, where Killen’s successor Don Cameron was
defeated by Garrie Gibson, who served two terms. A 4.9% swing in 1996
saw the return of the Liberal Party with candidate Gary Hardgrave, a
one-time radio disc-jockey and Wombat presenter, who is currently
contending with his own controversies. Demoted to the Liberal
backbench in January 2007 after retaining the seat by a mere 2.8% in
2004, Hardgrave was raided by the Australian Federal Police in March
2007 to clarify anomalies in taxpayer-funded printing allowances.
After accusations of delay and ALP connections to the AFP, on September
11 the Department of Public Prosecutions declared that no charges would
be laid against Hardgrave. Whether this matter affects the polls will
be of critical importance to the outcome of the election: the accepted
wisdom is that the ALP will need to acquire this seat to win victory in
2007.
Moreton takes its name from the nearby Moreton Bay, named in 1770 by
Captain James Cook after the Earl of Morton (with the misspelling
enduring). As defined by the Australian Electoral Commission, the
electorate covers approximately 107 sq kms, and embraces, in whole and
in part, the suburbs of Acacia Ridge, Algester, Annerley, Archerfield,
Calamvale, Chelmer, Drewvale, Eight Mile Plains, Graceville, Kuraby,
Macgregor, Moorooka, Nathan, Parkinson, Robertson, Rocklea, Runcorn,
Salisbury, Sherwood, Stretton-Karawatha, Sunnybank, Sunnybank Hills,
Tarragindi, Tennyson, Yeronga and Yeerongpilly. It includes the
Queensland Legislative Assembly electorates of Mansfield, Stretton and
Yeerongpilly. The most recent redistribution pushes the electorate
into Annerley, characterised as a typical inner-city Labor voting area,
and replaces Algester with Karawatha to the south. Mount Gravatt, once
in the electorate, now lies in the 2004-established seat of Bonner,
held by the LP’s Ross Vasta and contested by the ALP’s Kerry Rea in
Queensland’s first litmus-test seat.
According to the analysis of ABC commentator Antony Green, the
electorate holds pockets of strong voting for both primary parties. In
2001, the Liberal Party held majority in 21 of the 32 booths, with its
vote ranging from 33.0% at Rocklea to 71.0% at Chelmer, noted to be a
more affluent and thus conservative suburb. In 2004, voter turnout was
93.87%, with the two-party preferred being Liberal 54.17%, to Labor’s
45.83%, representing a 1.6% swing to the Liberals. The boundary
redistribution is perceived to favour the ALP, which has given impetus
to the retirement of Hardgrave to the backbench to concentrate on his
polling.
Labor Party candidate Graham Perrett contested the seat in 2004, and is
standing for election in 2007. Perrett has recently served as a policy
adviser to the Queensland Resources Council, having commenced work as a
Senior Policy Advisor (Mines) to the Beattie Government in 2005. With
degrees in both education and law, Perrett became an organiser for the
Queensland Independent Education Union in 2000, focusing on Christian
Schools, where he taught for eight years. He presents as a family man,
posing with his wife Lea, and two-year old son.
The platform Perrett is adopting is one of ‘opportunity for all’,
detailing plans for better access to education, affordable health care,
maintaining work and family balance, improving environmental
protection, enhancing job security including retirement plans,
protecting national security, and supporting small business.
With a background in radio and television journalism, the incumbent
member Gary Hardgrave served as a media advisor to Senator MacGibbon
and MLA (Qld) Angus Innes, and was campaign advisor for various State
and Federal elections from 1987. Hardgrave has had three ministerial
appointments: Minister for Vocational and Technical Education from
2004, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister from 2003, and Minister for
Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs from 2001-2004. He has served on
several House of Representative Standing Committees and the National
Crime Authority.
Hardgrave is campaigning on working for better, safer local roads,
securing the water supply, fighting for better police services, and
establishing better schools for the electorate’s youth. As such,
Hardgrave is emphasising the lack of State government cooperation with
Canberra, and dissonance among the levels of government.
A
broader, national focus has been established by Perrett in his election
materials to date. It is likely that both parties will contest the
impact of interest rate hikes on residents paying off mortgages,
changes to the Industrial Relations legislation, health, welfare, and
education, and the environmental concerns of sustainability and cleaner
energy. To what extent local issues come into play remains to be seen
in the campaign proper, unaffected as this electorate is directly by
the location of dams and merging of councils. Whether particular
attention is paid to the recent allegations of corruption will be
revealed in how ‘clean’ the parties’ campaigns are kept.
Reference sites:
AEC Profile
ABC Elections Profile
Labor for Moreton
Liberals - Gary Hardgrave
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